The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1887-07-01

DtnU IT lne rOuu nHlI mlle away
they looked back. The farmer stood
there, mouth open aud eyes as big as
Bermuda onions, and when they waved
their hats at him he never moved q
hair. He couldn't. He was paral yzed
Free Press.
A Real Western Play.
BILL NYE ATTEMPTS IN A FEEBLE WAY TC
oRITICIsE ARIZONA JOE.
Last evening Arizona Joe, the shoot
ing star, closed his engagement at the
Windsor in "The Black Hawks @
play that is very mucn fraught with
thrill. The scene is laid in Arizona and
New Mexico at time when the country
was new and the song of the six-shoot.
er was heard in the land.
The Black Hawks, from whom the
play derives its name, seem to be a
nomadic tribe of men who obtain a pre-.
carious livelihood by seizing woman
every little while who insists on stroll
ing across the plains dressed in plug
hat with veil around it. She is also
a victim to the bluo flannel riding habit
These robbers, who are really white
men from Fort Lee, seize their victim
by the wrist and in hoarst accents tell
her to prepare to meet her fate. But
she does not want to do so without an
opportunity to change her dress. She
asks them to spare her if they ever had
a mother. But always just as she is
asking if any gentlemen present has a
mother, and is doing up her hair pre-
paratory to meeting her doom, Arizona
Joe bursts forth, accompanied by his
long hair, and kills all of them except
the lady. He then rescues her and
takes her away to his cabin, where she
is perfectly safe and there is no scandal
connected with it for Arizona Joe is a
man who has had a mother, and,
although he frequently kills people, a
woman is just as safe In his cabin as
she would be in her own home. Ari.
zona Joe makes speciality of preserv-
ing and rescuing. He has all he can
do, and by the time he can bury his
dead and change his clothes there is
somebody else on the trail who desires
to be rescued.
Arizona Joe is not large man, but
is noted for his long ard talented hair
which parts at the back and shows how
his head is fastened on. He has a won
derful wealth of hair and would have
made very good Sutherland sister
if he had given his attention to it earlier
in life. ..... ..-
The plot of the play seems to be to
afford Arizona Joe every possible facility
for slaughtering supes and preserving
the lives of young women who are In
the habit of crossing the plains in Gro.
quet slippers. And yet it is to be re.
GREETED that 80 many of these supes
who really have not tried to act at all
should be killed that way, while those
who really take part in the play and
who thereby arouse the indignation of
the audience should be spared.
Arizona Joe changes his hat when
ever he successfully kills anybody. 1t
is also noticeable that he wears red
tie when he is in the slaugher business
and green tie when he rescues a
young woman who is going through a
hostile country without an escort. AT
one point IN the play where A. j. has
rescued young woman and taken her
to his cabin, where she had been for
three or four weeks waiting for her
parents to come on from Atchlson,
noticed that she and Joe had iu the
confusion attendant on the rescue and
preservation traded neckties with each
other, but l do not think that sh ould
be used against them.
-Four dogs,a pearl gray jackass and a
hollow stump also take part in the play
At one point dog comes in bringing a
birthmark in his mouth, when Arizona
Joe at once jumps at the conclusion
that there is some human being near
by. Long life on the border has taught
him that birthmark is one of the very
best evidences that some one is not far
away. So with a quick Waterbury
movement, he dashes out and finds a
covey of people who are crossing the
plains without his consent. He kills
them, changes his necxtieso that he will
not be recognized, and goes home by
a circuitous route. Along at this point
in the play, variety Irishman and
an impossible negro come out and sing
topical song of of the time of Queen
Anne. The song is not 80 bad as |
have heard, but it was difficult to Judge
it, as the people who were going out
at the time drowned the music with
their heavy foot prints.
Looking at Arizona Joe last evening
in his strange wild beauty, one could
hardly help from admiring him, for
with all his poverty, beauty and temp.
tation to lead life of shame, he does
not yield, but goes bravely on earning
precarious livelihood by killing dis
agreeable people with whom he come,
in contact. He never murmurs oyei
his lot, and no ear ever hears him com
plain unless it be the frontier.
AS a Mexican hairless humorist he
would not succeed, but in his great rol,
as preserver of stage coaches, be doet
well. | would suggest to any one con
templating a trip across New Mexico
or Arizona by Tantivy coach, that they
cannot get their rescuing done with les
delay or annoyance than by giving
their orders to Arizona Joe.
The costumes used in this play ar,
mostly of the present century, and ar
quite realistic, though the whiskers usec
by some of old Cauiflowers band ar,
not good fit for those who wear them
One man especially wears a bear
which is too tight for him, and pull
his ears down too low, besides sawinl
across the under side of his nose an,
giving his voice a rich nasal twang.